"The best exoteric account of the legend (of Osiris) is preserved for us by Plutarch in his treatise De Iside et Osiride written in Greek about the middle of the first century of our era, a large portion of which is substantiated by the Egyptian hieroglyphic texts which have been deciphered by scholars. It may be briefly summarized as follows:

Osiris was a wise king in Egypt who set himself to civilize the people and redeem them from their former states of barbarism. He taught them the cultivation of the earth, gave them a body of laws, and instructed them in the worship of the gods. Having made his own land prosperous, he set out in like manner to teach the other nations of the world. During his absence the land of Egypt was so well ruled by his wife, Isis, that his jealous brother Typhon (Set), the personification of evil, as Osiris was the personification of good, could do no harm in his kingdom; but on the return of Osiris to Egypt, Typhon made a conspiracy against him, persuading 72 other persons to join him, together with a certain Queen of Ethiopia named Aso, who chanced to be in Egypt at the time (74 altogether)... recognizing the body of that of Osiris, tore it into 14 pieces...twice seven parts(74)... Ultimately Osiris became the king of the underworld and the judge of the dead."